FALL RIVER — B.M.C. Durfee High School already offers students dual enrollment options with nearby Bristol Community College.

Now school officials are looking to expand the pre-existing opportunity of taking a few college courses while in high school into a full-fledged early-college model, with students having the potential to graduate from Durfee with both a high school diploma and enough college credits to earn an associate’s degree.

It would be at no additional cost to students.

The School Committee voted at its regular meeting Feb. 10 to form a subcommittee to look at the feasibility of such a partnership.

Fall River Public Schools officials and BCC officials have already begun preliminary talks to see if there is interest in the concept.

“We had an initial and very preliminary discussion with President [John] Sbrega,” said Superintendent Meg Mayo-Brown. “The first thing we would do is determine if BCC has capacity.”

To get a program off the ground there are plenty of other details to be hashed out, including whether to launch a pilot, the number of students who would be part of that pilot and at what grade level those students would start.

Mayo-Brown noted that even with the existing dual enrollment program, there is not yet a defined pathway or course sequence that would take students to a post-secondary degree all while in high school.

Mayo-Brown said she thinks the concept can work at a comprehensive high school such as Durfee.

“I think fits in nicely, labeling it as a pathway, another option that students can participate in,” she said.

“It is a heavy investment as far as time. It’s an additional load. But the benefits of that model, it’s a huge financial savings for families,” Mayo-Brown said.

BCC officials appear supportive of the model.

Sally Cameron, BCC’s vice president of college communications, confirmed that a conversation had taken place.

She said BCC will gather faculty input with the decision making.

While supportive of “anything that gives people access to college,” there are concerns over “what an early college at the high school looks like. The college always is concerned about having the integrity of programming and credits protected,” Cameron said. “There’s a lot of past involvement in dual-enrollment courses.”

Roughly 40 students are currently enrolled in dual-enrollment classes.

In some cases, high school students take classes at BCC. In other examples, high school teachers teach BCC courses. The college’s faculty goes into Durfee to teach courses as well, Cameron explained.

Additionally, BCC and Fall River Public Schools have the Gateway to College program, which offers an alternative track to a degree for students at risk for dropping out of high school.

Page 2 of 2 - Mayor Will Flanagan, who serves as chairman of the School Committee, said he supports the overall concept. “It’s an opportunity to allow a student to receive a high school diploma as well as college credits,” he said, but adding that it’s early in the process, and questions remain to be answered about the cost of funding such a program.

“This is going to be a difficult budget year,” Flanagan said. “Public safety and education have always been my top priority. But you have the landfill closing, that’s an expense. The expiration of the SAFER grant, that’s an expense. And you hear from property owners concerned about having an increase in their taxes and fees.”

Districts and other states are experiencing success with their early college high school programs, including Texas, which has more than 50 early college high schools, explained Joel Vargas, the vice president of High School Transition for Boston-based Jobs For the Future. Across the United States, there are more than 200 early college high schools, serving about 47,000 students. The movement has been ongoing for more than a decade.

Vargas has been following and helping to inform the development of those programs, though he was not familiar yet with the proposal at Durfee.

To get a program in action, “you need a good college partner who’s committed,” Vargas said. He added that it also requires a plan, and improved teaching and learning, “to make sure there are enough kids ready to take courses.”

He said states that have seen the most successful models generally have the lowest in-state tuition costs. The cost of in-state community college tuition in Massachusetts is higher than average, Vargas said.

Vargas said JFF is still collecting data, but he notes that in order to be successful, a school’s “vision has to be to reach everyone. Otherwise some students won’t benefit who need to.”

That means serving low-income students and minority groups, students generally underrepresented in higher education, according to Vargas.

There are at least six existing early college high schools throughout Massachusetts, including in Springfield and Marlboro. “The movement is younger here,” Vargas said.